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During the summer of 2016 I relocated from Seattle to Las Vegas. Since then, I have not put up new posts here on New To Seattle, although visitors are free to comment on older posts, to which I often respond. In Sin City I've launched a new blog, New To Las Vegas, which continues my same tradition of observation, musings and commentary. Visitors can access my new blog by clicking here. Please visit and stay awhile.

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The devil in the suburbs of Seattle

It was nearly 20 years ago when The New York Times Magazine riled the waters of suburbia with a cover story. “The Devil in Long Island” was writer Rob Rosenbaum’s review of the seemingly large amount of crime and strange doings in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. That’s home to a collection of bedroom communities with 2.6 million residents stretching eastward for 100 miles from New York City along the continental U.S.’s largest island. Published on August 22, 1993, the much-commented-upon 9,000-word article distressed local leaders who, among other things, thought it would hurt economic development by unfairly stigmatizing the area.

Pierce County, Washington (Wikipedia)

Now that I am New To Seattle, I think I have found the Pacific Northwest equivalent of the diabolic suburban inferno Rosenbaum described. It is the lesser populated Pierce County, immediately to the south of King County, home of Seattle. Like Long Island, the 800,000-person jurisdiction, dominated by the looming, haunting, snow-capped presence of Mount Rainier–a volcano that some day could erupt again–is often in the news for terrible reasons.

Tacoma, which like Seattle hugs Puget Sound, is the county seat, and with 200,000 residents, the county’s largest town. Tacoma called itself the City of Destiny in advance of the 1883 arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, linking its ocean-going ports with Chicago. But City of Disaster seemed more like it in light of the spectacular 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, then the world-third longest suspension span, just four months after its opening. By that time, Tacoma and Pierce County and had lost their regional dominance to Seattle and King County.

These days, while still a major port, Tacoma is known outside the Puget Sound region mainly because its name is on a major airport. But it’s located miles away in King County. By light rail you can get to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport from Seattle, but not from Tacoma or anywhere in Pierce County.